50 Years Before the Mastheads: My published and unpublished stories on politics, corruption, defence

Malcolm Fraser wanted ASIO to tap his phone. Bob Hawke took him to the High Court. The Senate privileges committee held him in contempt. And former foreign minister Gareth Evans wanted him jailed.

There are few journalists in Australian history who have published as many leaks and so enraged governments in the process as former National Times editor and Australian Financial Review correspondent Brian Toohey.

50 Years Before the Mastheads is a selection of Toohey's articles since the 1970s covering corruption, the US alliance, national security and intelligence, secrecy, and economic reform.

It includes previously unpublished articles on the US government's deep involvement in the dismissal of the Whitlam government, and the businessmen who supplied Bob Hawke with prostitutes. Toohey also recounts stories from his foreign travels of the misadventures of an Australian government official and young female staffer, and the time Lady Mary Fairfax expected him to swap his hotel room for her hut in the hotel grounds.